With regard to your editorial “Treasurer should not play politics with debt” (Jan. 28): assuming the state public pension problems are not potentially dooming (or as Maine state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin says, “a potential fiscal tsunami”), the government enters a state of complacency.

No one, not even Poliquin, assumes that our fiscal dilemmas can compare to those of New York, Illinois or California. But by being complacent, by refusing to actively regulate the consequential problems in the public pension system, Maine begins down the path of those other financially troubled states.

Rather than condemn Poliquin for speaking gravely about a considerable issue, we should commend him. He is not a political apparatchik, but rather a concerned Mainer. Accusing him of politically motivated alarmism is rather ridiculous.

The fact is that our public pension system will inevitably become insolvent if the government refuses to make reforms. In less than 10 years, the unfunded pension costs to the taxpayer are expected to double.

Past state governments simply didn’t put enough money away to pay for the future cost obligations of the pension system — often the problem with a morally hazardous government.

To comply with the 2028 deadline, payments to the system must double up, although one can attribute this to the economic recession. A $4.3 billion unfunded actuarial liability is nothing to scoff at; it’s a serious threat to Maine taxpayers.

Poliquin is not demonstrating alarmist rhetoric, but rather recognizing a problem that poses a severe threat to the fiscal well-being of Maine.

The government will not deter the exponentially growing cost of the public pension system until serious discussion about its consequences is brought to the forefront. Complacency and nonchalance are not solutions.